Contrary to speculation that disciplinary action would be taken against V.S. Achuthanandan, Kerala's veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sunday escaped with only a public censure.
"Yes, some of the things that I raised have been addressed. The details of all this, you will know when (general secretary) Prakash Karat tells you about it. It was Karat who invited us here for the meeting and issues have been discussed," said Achuthanandan after returning from the meeting to Kerala House in Delhi.
Incidentally this is the sixth time that disciplinary action has been taken against him, with the first one way back in 1966.
A party source said that he spoke in the central committee for close to 30 minutes Sunday, where he said most of the issues were those he has been raising for a few years but the national leadership did not look into it.
He also admitted that it was a mistake of his that he chose to visit the home of murdered former CPI-M leader in Kozhikode on the very same day of the Neyattinkara by-election took place in June this year.
The CPI-M in Kerala has been divided between Achuthanandan and the huge majority faction headed by state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
The two have been at loggerheads for more than a decade and every time when the clash crossed limits, the national leadership intervened and on every occasion it was the veteran who outsmarted Vijayan, like what happened Sunday.
This time the Vijayan faction had asked the national leadership to reign him in by removing him from the post of the leader of opposition and also to remove him from the central committee of the party, but nothing happened.
"This is a very very lenient step which has been taken against him and all of us expect that he will accept this and correct himself and does not repeat what he was doing before," said a peeved M.M. Lawerence a senior CPI-M leader owing allegiance to the Vijayan faction.
The veteran has been going on hammer and tongs against his party for some time now and it increased hugely after he was not nominated to the party politburo at the party meeting held in February.